Furniture such as chests of drawers, bookcases, television carts, etc., have been very widely commonly used in homes for their intended purposes. Unfortunately, pursuant to reports by the United States Consumer Products Safety Commission, thousands of injuries and several deaths have occurred to children as a result of such furniture being tipped over. It is reported that most of these injuries involved furniture with drawers such as dressers and chests of drawers and, further, that most of these injuries occurred to children under the age of 5. It is believed that young children try to pull themselves up or climb the chests of drawers or bookcases thereby causing them to tip over.
As a result of these reports and current awareness of the problem, some furniture manufacturers have been asked to modify the design of their furniture so as to hopefully prevent or decrease the possibility that the furniture could be tipped over. As can be appreciated, however, furniture such as chests of drawers, television carts and bookcase shelves have been standardized for many years and modifications, for example, to the dimensions of such furniture for preventing inadvertent tipping, in general, makes such furniture unusable or cumbersome for their intended purpose and are essentially unacceptable to typical consumers. As a result, it is recommended and most preferable that such furniture be placed as far back as possible against a wall and that braces or anchors be used to secure the furniture to the floor or wall. Although such furniture anchors and/or braces can be effective in preventing the furniture from tipping over, they must not be cumbersome, difficult to install, or expensive, so that they will readily and widely be used by most consumers.
Accordingly, a need exists for a furniture tipping restraint which can easily be installed, which would not detract from the appearance of the furniture, is generally inexpensive, and which is effective in helping to prevent furniture from inadvertently being tipped over and potentially causing injury.